Boxing Day
by CALLEN37
Summary: Set two days after Is this how they do it?. a one shot as a christmas present to you all.


A/N a small one shot part of the Tombstone, and Is this how they do it...series, this takes place 2 days after Is this how they do it? ends.

For all my readers and reviewers MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Disclaimer, Don't own it...

* * *

_**Boxing Day.**_

Christmas was over, Nell's parents had left and gone home to spend the rest of Christmas with her family and to inform them of the new arrival of Clara and Jackson Gibbs, Nell and Callen's new twins.

Jackson Gibbs senior was asleep in the guest room and Gibbs was asleep on the couch in the living room.

Callen slipped through into the kitchen, grabbed a coffee and sat on his back porch watching the sun rise over Los Angeles.

This was the first quiet moment he'd had since the twins were born a few days ago.

His team had pitched in and helped get the house ready for the arrival of his son and daughter, they had taken the news that he was dating Nell a lot better than he had thought they would, Even Director Vance having been informed had decided to not transfer Nell from the team, which had been something they had both feared. Although he thought maybe it had something to do with Eric threatening to quit if Nell had been moved from the team and Hetty threatening the same if he had been transferred might have had something to do with it. He made a mental note to make sure Eric knew how much he appreciated it.

He thought back to yesterday, waking up to his first family Christmas.

* * *

He had, the same dream he'd had every year since he was a child, the dream where he'd run into the living room and his father would pick him up and twirl him around, he would sit on his mothers knee while his father passed him a present telling him about how Santa had come and showing him the half eaten cookies and milk from the night before. Since finding out about his sister the dream had changed to include her and tonight for the first time both his mother and father had faces.

He woke up as he usually did, in bed alone.

For a second he blinked back the tears that usually fell on Christmas morning. He breathed deeply and smelled her scent on the pillows. This year he knew was different. She was here.

He sat up as the rest of his brain caught up, He had children!

He walked across the hall and cracked open the door to the twins' room, Nell was sitting in a rocking chair feeding Clara as Jackson slept in his crib.

"Hey?" Nell said smiling, "Happy Christmas Daddy." She said quietly.

"Is she ok?" he asked looking over at his daughter.

Nell nodded, "Yeah just hungry, Mom and Dad'll be back soon, they decided they would stay for Christmas."

Callen looked worried, "Is your dad gonna be ok with me, I mean I know your mom was ok, but…David?" he asked.

Nell nodded, "We had a talk as I was putting the kids down last night. Dad just wanted to make sure you loved me and didn't want to hurt me." She said.

"I do you know." He said kneeling next to her and kissing her hand as she ran it through his hair.

She smiled, "Are you ready for this?" she asked.

Callen nodded, "Yeah?" he asked as if he had no idea what she was on about.

"Without your book?" she asked.

"My…How do you know about the book?" he asked.

"You were driving everyone crazy scribbling in it, you don't need it you know." She told him.

"Yeah I do. It's important…I need to change a few things in it…" he said standing up.

Nell sighed, "Nico, go light the oven and put the turkey on, it's already prepped, I did it yesterday and make your father's coffee."

Callen nodded, he got up walked to the kitchen and did as he was asked and went back to the bedroom to shower and change.

Grabbing Nell's favorite light blue shirt and jeans and grabbing a pair of boots he got dressed checked his pocket and went out into the living room. Unaware he was holding his breath.

* * *

Gibbs walked out of the kitchen as Callen walked into the room. He wrapped his arms around his son and hugged him, "Morning Nico, Merry Christmas." He said his voice catching a bit.

"Merry Christmas D…Dad." Callen said quietly. A lump formed in his throat as he realized that he finally got to spend Christmas with his family.

He sat down in his favorite chair and watched as the house came to life.

This year there was no drunken foster father yelling at him for being awake already, no disgruntled foster mother moaning about how she was supposed to cook and share their families Christmas dinner with the waste of space that was living with them. No temporary siblings, smaller ones crying because the foster parents had told them that Santa wouldn't come as he only came to kids with real families. Older ones looking through the boxes of donated gifts that child services had brought to the household and stealing a gift from him. There would be no hiding from fists or the authorities, no sitting on the end of a pier eating a stolen corn dog for Christmas dinner and no being alone.

This year, he was a father. He had a father and a family of his very own.

He took a swig of the coffee his father had handed him desperately trying to swallow the lump that threatened to overwhelm him.

"You ok?" Gibbs asked

Callen nodded unable to say anything.

"Make a lot of memories today son, this is your children's first Christmas. You'll want to remember it, it's not gonna be like the ones before." Gibbs said.

"It's…"Callen stopped as Gibbs looked up. "It's my first one too dad." He whispered.

Gibbs looked shocked at that, "Oh, your first one with us you mean?" he asked.

Callen shook his head, "No, my first Christmas." He reiterated.

Gibbs sat on the sofa and looked at his son, "What about as a child?"

Callen got up and walked to the kitchen, making a pretext of checking the turkey. "It doesn't matter." He said.

Gibbs followed him memories of Kelly's early Christmases going through his mind, "I'm sorry." He said he realized that while he was celebrating Christmas with his youngest daughter, his son had been missing out and going through things he still wouldn't share.

"I thought it was a sign of weakness." Callen said. "Besides you didn't know I was alive, so it isn't your fault."

Jackson came in carrying his namesake as Nell carried Clara into the living room.

"Merry Christmas." Jackson smiled as Callen walked back into the room; he walked over and hugged his grandpa.

"Merry Christmas Grandpa." He said.

"Merry Christmas Nico." Jackson replied. "So are we doing gifts yet?" he asked.

"After breakfast Grandpa, Hetty and Nell's parents are coming over." Callen said.

* * *

A few hours later the family was all gathered in the living room, Christmas dinner eaten and pronounced by all to be a huge success.

Callen was sat in his chair; Nell sat on his lap comfortably whilst the babies were in their bassinets listening to the Christmas music playing quietly in the background.

"Presents now?" Jackson asked.

Nell nodded.

She reached over and grabbed the first gift. "This is from me to Nico." She announced.

Callen looked at it and carefully took the paper off. He laughed as he finally undid the wrapper.

"A book?" Jackson asked.

"A new journal…to plan for next Christmas." Nell grinned. Hetty laughed as well and proceeded to tell them all about how Callen had planned for this Christmas down to the smallest detail.

"Well," Callen grinned, "I hadn't planned on the twins making an appearance till next year, so I may have to plan harder next time."

Nell handed Gibbs his present from them, He opened it and was struck at the picture frame with a photo shopped picture of Callen, Kelly, Shannon, Amelia and Clara inside, "It's beautiful, how did you do this?" he asked.

Nell looked at Callen, "Technical Analysts trade secret," she grinned.

Jackson opened his present which consisted of a year-long permit to fish at his favorite lake and rental of a cabin in the spring. "We also arranged for LJ Moore to go with you and Nell and I will watch the store that week." Callen said.

"Thank you son." Jackson said really moved by the gift.

David and Liz watched politely as gifts were exchanged between Callen and his family. Hetty received a subscription to Tea's of the world and a new bone china tea set.

Callen turned to David and Liz, "I don't know you very well, but we hoped that this would be a good gift for you," he said and handed them an unwrapped album. "Sorry we had to unwrap it to finish it." He said.

David and Liz opened it and with tears in their eyes watched as photos of Nell with her first sonogram to her small bump and the progress through her pregnancy was revealed. "There is a DVD in the back of the sonograms and some of Nell during her pregnancy; we didn't want you to miss out on anything so we recorded it all." Callen said.

Liz walked across the room and hugged Callen fiercely, "Thank you Nicolai." She said. Then she hugged Nell, "Thank you honey." She said.

Gibbs got some presents out from under the tree and handed them to Callen and Nell, "I know this is your first Christmas together, and your first as parents, and your first Nico with your family, However I never realized that it was your very first family Christmas and I want you to know that I am very proud to be your father and I have something for you that you should have had years ago." He handed him an envelope and watched as Callen opened it.

"I…I…Dad?" he said showing Nell the piece of paper that his father had given him. "It's my birth certificate with my name on." He said tears of happiness falling down. He got up and walked outside needing a moment to compose himself.

David and Liz looked on confused.

"Until earlier this year Nico didn't know what his name was," she said, "He thought his name was Callen and he had a first initial G but that was all he had." She explained.

"I had to go to the Romanian consulate in Washington and they tracked it down for me." Gibbs said.

* * *

Callen came back in and they rest of them exchanged presents until Gibbs turned to Callen.

"Nico, did you get Nell a present, I don't think I saw one on here?" he asked.

Callen gulped, "I…er…well…Nell…" he got down on one knee and her hands flew to her face. "I have loved you for these past few years, I loved you ever since the day you cut me off mid sentence in ops, I loved you when you came on your first operation and you looked like you were running away from home and now I know you love me and have given me two beautiful babies. Nell Jones…will you marry me and stay with me forever?" he asked his hands shaking as he held out the small black jewelry box containing a white gold band with a solitaire diamond.

Nell swayed as tears coursed down her cheeks and for a moment Callen thought she'd say no, but then suddenly his arms were full of the tiny redhead "YES!" she screamed causing the babies to jump she kissed him hard and laughed as the both broke apart to comfort one baby each.

Callen looked down in his coffee mug as his now fiancée opened the door to the back patio, she leant down and kissed him, "Happy boxing day baby." She said.

"So how was it?" he asked hoping he'd gotten Christmas right.

"It was perfect, but honey…" she handed him the journal she had brought him, "If we are going to get married by the next one, you had better start planning."

Callen grinned, he might just get to like Christmas after all.


End file.
